July 30, 2002 - David Spanbauer - Serial killer David Spanbauer died at Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin from apparent natural causes. Spanbauer, who was 61, had liver and heart disease, died in an infirmary cell. A paroled sex offender, Spanbauer abducted and killed two girls, ages 10 and 12, in 1992 and 1994 as they bicycled on rural roads. He also killed a woman in her home in 1994. Spanbauer was serving to three life terms plus 405 years. "Considering the tragedies that he's caused for numerous families around the state, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who is shedding a tear over this death," said District Attorney Vince Biskupic.

July 15, 2002 - Cannibalism in Ukraine - Police in the central Ukrainian town of Zhytomyr said they have arrested three men and a woman on suspicion of murdering and cannibalizing six people, including an 18-year-old girl. "They killed a young woman in a forest and then cut out fleshy parts of the body and ate them," a police spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency.

April 28, 2002 - Angel Maturino Resendez - Nancy Resendiz , a 50-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, woman she hopes to be legally married to railroad killer, Angel Maturino Resendiz as soon as possible.
Resendiz, who legally changed her last name in a Cleveland probate court, was already married to the killer by a minister in the prison visitation room during a religious ceremony nearly a year ago. The marriage, however, remains unrecognized by the state, however, because they had not obtained a marriage license.

April 26, 2002 - Alton Coleman - Rampage killer Alton Coleman was put to death by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for beating 44-year-old Marlene Walters to death in her Norwood, Ohio, on July 13, 1984. Coleman has standing death sentences in Indiana and Illinois resulting from a 54-day rampage of rape, abduction and murder which left eight dead people in his wake.

April 11, 2002 - Andrea Yates - In their quest to divert blame, Andrea Yates' family asked prosecutors to file charges against a doctor who altered her medication two days before she drowned her five children last summer. Yates' mother and two brothers said in a letter to prosecutors that Dr. Mohammad Saeed's failure to warn authorities that Yates was a threat to the children made him accountable for their June 20 deaths. Saeed referred questions to his attorney. During the trial, Saeed testified that when he saw Yates in June, she showed no evidence of psychosis.

April 10, 2002 - Robert Pickton - Pig farmer and alleged serial killer, Robert Pickton was charged with his sixth first degree murder count for the murder of 23.year-old Andrea Joesbury, who disappeared last June. In addition, Vancouver police admitted they have found human remains in Pickton's Port Coquitlam pig farm. Families of Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway were notified that the remains of their loved ones were found in the pig farm. The Vancouver Sun has confirmed that other remains -- for which no charges have been laid to date -- have still not been identified.

April 10, 2002 - Edward Lutes - Authorities in New Jersey's Dover Township and Ocean County are still trying to determine what drove a veteran police officer to go on a late-night shooting rampage, killing five people and then himself. The policeman, 15-year Seaside Heights veteran Edward Lutes, was found in his car this morning, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to Dover Township police, Lutes shot and killed five neighbors before heading to nearby Barnegat Township, where he shot and wounded his superior, Seaside Heights police Chief James Costello. Costello, who considered himself a good friend of the killer, was hospitalized in satisfactory condition.

April 8, 2002 - Six Dead Babies in Japan - The decomposed bodies of six dead babies have been found in a cupboard in a vacant apartment in Toda, a city 12 miles northwest of Tokyo. Five of the babies were found wrapped in half-transparent bags and the sixth one was enclosed in a plastic case. The babies, which we in different stages of decay, where found by housekeepers called in by the management company to clean the property. Police are looking to question a former female tenant who moved out of the apartment last March.

April 4, 2002 - William Heirens - Chicago's William Heirens asked a clemency board to free him claiming that he was wrongly imprisoned. The now 73 year-old inmate was convicted 56 years ago of the murders of two women and one little girl. In one of the crime scenes he chillingly scrawled on the mirror with red lipstick, "Catch me before I kill more". In court Heirens claimed that he was not guilty but that his alter ego George Murman was the responsible party.

April 3, 2002 - Robert Cordell - An Ohio man accused of shooting to death two next-door neighbors and setting fire to their house to cover up the killings is now also suspected in the death of his former sister-in-law. Robert Cordell, 43, was arraigned on aggravated murder and aggravated arson charges and held on $2 million bond. His alleged victims, Mayor Frank Carnevale, 72, and his ex-wife Rita Bushman, 68, were both shot several times in the head. Their bodies were found by firefighters responding to a basement fire at the couple's home in Reading, a Cincinnati suburb.

Police said they also suspected Cordell with the death of his former sister-in-law, Kathleen Cordell, 40, but added they were awaiting autopsy results before filing charges. "He'll definitely be charged in that case if the cause of death is found to be other than natural, which we believe it is," Lt. Scott Snow said. Kathleen Cordell's body was found in the home she shared with Cordell after he was questioned by police in the slayings of his neighbors.

April 3, 2002 - Robert Pickton - Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert Pickton was charged with three more counts of first-degree murder bringing raising his total to five out 50 unsolved killings. The new charges were announced at the Port Coquitlam provincial court while the 52-year-old suspect appeared on close-circuit television.

April 1, 2002 - Danny Rolling - In 1994, Danny Rolling, who in 1994 pleaded guilty to the five murders, three counts of battery and three armed robberies and was sentenced to death in Gainsville, Florida, filed an appeal to the state's highest court saying his lawyer should have moved his sentencing out of Gainesville to ensure he would be sentenced fairly. "Rolling's lawyers were seriously deficient for failing to take very simple but necessary steps to ensure that their client was not tried in a hostile venue," the court brief states. "All the evidence shows that defense counsel knew that a vast majority of the potential jurors, with good reason, despised Rolling."

March 27, 2002 - Richard Durn - A man sat silently through a six-hour Nanterre city council meeting, then rose and started firing two semiautomatic Glock pistols, methodically killing eight city officials and wounding 19 more people. The shooter, Richard Durn, was also packing a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, which he did not use. Durn was restrained by witnesses after an official threw a chair at him. That official was seriously wounded when the Durn managed to free one of his free hands and continued firing. When police arrived, the rampager begged them to kill him. anterre is a working-class neighborhood near a business district of western Paris.

March 26, 2002 - John Hogan - A retired Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy in Merced, California, shot and killed his 5-year-old daughter and three stepchildren while his estranged wife was out for a walk. Then he committed suicide with the body of his daughter in his arms. apparently entered the house after his estranged wife, Christine McFadden, had set out at 6 a.m. on her morning walk. A little later than 7 a.m. she returned to the house and found her 17-year-old daughter dead in the hallway outside her bedroom. McFadden then went to a neighbor's house and clled police. When she returned home with deputies, she found the bodies of the three other children and Hogan. The three older children were identified as Melanie Willis, 17; Stanley Willis, 15, and Stuart Willis, 14.

March 25, 2002 - Andrea Yates - Texas prosecutors are considering whether to file child endangerment charges against Rusty Yates, husband of infanticidal mom Andrea Yates. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said he assigned a prosecutor to the case after receiving numerous e-mails suggesting that Daddy Dearest shared culpability for the crime. Andrea Yates, 37, was sentenced to life in prison for drowning the children in the family bathtub. The jury in her month-long trial rejected her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

March 22, 2002 - Andrea Yates - Acording to Suzanne O'Malley, an investigative journalist who writes for the series "Law & Order," Andrea Yates owes her life to the NBC hit series. During the Yates trial, forensic psychiatrist and "Law & Order" consultant, Park Dietz testified that Yates was perfectly sane when she drowned her kids. Dietz based his argument on the fact that the Sam Waterston-starrer was Yates' favorite program and that she planned her children's murders after watching an episode in which a mother drowns her kids, claims post-partum depression, and is acquitted. Dietz theorized that Yates used the show as a "blueprint" to escape her rotten life and marriage. Though an interesting theory, O'Malley told Yates' lawyer that no such episode had ever been written. The night before sentencing, Parnham had Dietz admit to false testimony, raising grounds for a mistrial and forcing prosecutors to give up the death penalty.

March 16, 2002 - Four Dead in South Bend, Indiana - An employee at an aircraft parts plant in South Bend, Indiana, shot and killed three people and wounded another, then stole a van and led police on a high-speed chase that ended when he shot himself to death. The man continued firing his shotgun from the van throughout the chase, and the vehicle was still moving when he shot himself while approaching a roadblock just across the state line near Niles, Michigan, said Capt. Richard Dragomer of the Michigan State Police.

The shooting began shortly after 8 a.m. at Bertrand Products, an aviation parts manufacturer near the South Bend Regional Airport on the city's west side. "It was a gun battle all the way out of South Bend," Dragomer said. "He was shooting all the way." Deb Bonin, the wife of company President Paul Bonin, said he told her the shooter had worked at Bertrand's shipping and receiving department. Bonin said her husband was not at the plant at the time of the shooting because of a morning doctor's appointment, but he had talked with other workers.

March 16, 2002 - Andrea Yates - Infanticidal mom, Andrea Yates, was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison for drowning her five children. The jury of eight women and four men delivered for only 35 minutes before handing out the sentence. After the jury returned its punishment, Russell Yates reiterated his support for his wife, who had pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. "I believe in Andrea," he said. "She's the victim here not only of the medical community but also the justice system." Andrea Yates turned to her attorneys and smiled as she realized her life had been spared. Yates must serve at least 40 years behind bars before she becomes eligible for parole.

March 16, 2002 - Robert Bryant - A family of six in Yamhill County, Oregon, were found shot to death in their hillside home in an apparent murder-suicide. The children -- ages 8 to 15 -- were found in their beds, dressed in their night clothes. Their mother, 37-year-old Janet Ellen Bryant, was found on the floor in the master bedroom. Robert Bryant, the 37-year-old familicidal dad, was found in the living room dead from an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound. Authorities believe the family was dead for several days before they were discovered. The Bryant home sits on about two acres in a rural subdivision outside McMinnville, a prosperous town in Oregon's vineyard country about 35 miles southwest of Portland.

March 15, 2002 - Andrea Yates - In an attempt to conjure sympathy for their client Andrea Yates' lawyers released a letter in which she expressed her love for her children: "Noah, he was my first born. He was so inquisitive and his favorite thing to do was hatching monarch butterflies. John, with his cute grin, he loved to do crafts and was very enthusiastic. Precious Paul, nurturing and loving, he sought to please us and be special friends to his brothers. Beautiful Luke, trying to keep up with his brothers, he also was nurturing, especially to his baby sister. Beautiful Mary, such a loving baby with the big blue eyes. I thank God I was blessed with such a precious family."

March 12, 2002 - Efren Saldivar - After cutting a deal with the prosecution that would spare him from the death penalty, "Angel of Death" Efren Saldivar pleaded guilty to murdering six elderly patients by injecting them with muscle relaxants at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Saldivar, 32, agreed to seven consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1998 he told police he might have contributed to "anywhere from 100 to 200" deaths during his 9-year career as a hospital worker and had actively killed up to 50 patients by giving drugs or withholding treatment. He later recanted in television interviews, saying he fabricated his statements because he was depressed and wanted to die.

March 12, 2002 - Andrea Yates - After 3 1/2 hour deliberation, a jury of eight women and four men found 37-year-old Andrea Yates guilty of murder. The infanticidal mom showed little reaction as she stood between her attorneys during the verdict. Her husband, Rusty, muttered "oh God" and clasped his head with both hands. The charges cover the deaths of three of her children.

March 6, 2002 - Andras Pandy - A Belgian court convicted Andras Pandy, a now-retired protestant preacher, of killing six family members and dissolving their bodies in chemical drain cleaner. He was sentenced to life in prison. His daughter 44-year-old Agnes Pandy, received a 21-year sentence for being an accomplice in five murders and one attempted murder. Pandy, who is Hungarian but moved to Belgium to escape Communism, was found guilty of murdering two wives and four children, one of which, a daughter, he also was convicted of raping. Not the cornerstone in family values, he was convicted of raping two other daughters, the oldest of which, helped him with the killings.

March 6, 2002 - Andrea Yates - A jail psychiatrist testifying in Andrea Yates' capital murder trial, said that the infanticidal mom was delusional when she was jailed after drowning her children. Dr. Debra Osterman said she first saw a glimmer of life in Yates' eyes on July 20, exactly a month after the killings. According to the psychiatrist, her psychosis had completely lifted by August 3. "It took longer than has been typical of other psychotic patients I've treated," Osterman testified. "It was like coming out of a fog."

March 6, 2002 - Thomas H, Wendt - A Michigan man accused of fatally shooting his ex-wife and two other people outside a courthouse was captured at home after taking an apparent overdose of prescription drugs and calling a crisis hot line. Thomas H. Wendt, 51, was disoriented but unharmed when police arrested him in his trailer following an hour-long standoff with police in which Wendt came outside twice with a shotgun. Authorities finally entered the trailer when telephone negotiations broke down. The three victims -- Vicki Sue Keller-Wendt, 44, Brandie Lea Keller, 20, and Douglas McCoy, 50, -- were shot in a parking lot outside the Isabella County Courthouse. They were going to the courthouse to testify at a probation hearing for Wendt. Police said Wendt had been in court before on a domestic violence charge.

March 5, 2002 - Andrea Yates - A psychiatrist testifying for the defense said that a Andrea Yates believed she had no choice but to drown her five children to save them from "eternal damnation." Under cross-examination, psychiatrist Phillip Resnick agreed with prosecutor Joe Owmby that Yates knew she was legally wrong when she killed her children. But Resnick added that Yates believed she had no choice. "Because of her dilemma, what she perceived as right was to take her children's life on Earth to prevent them from eternal damnation," he said. According to Resnick, Yates believed she was sacrificing her life in this world and eternity to spare her children from hell. "She was afraid Satan would hear it and make it happen," Resnick said. Yates' mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, took the stand saying her daughter was a "wonderful mother," and was always watching over her children adn "protecting them."

February 22, 2002 - Andrea Yates - Sergeant Eric Mehl testified in court that Andrea Yates, after confessing to drowning her five children, asked him when her trial would be held. In her taped confession, played for the jury, Yates said she intended to suffocate the life out of her children. She also described how she chased her oldest son, Noah, before forcing him into the bathtub. "How long have you been having thoughts about wanting, or not wanting to, but drowning your children?" Mehl asked during the interview. "Probably since I realized I have not been a good mother to them," Yates answered. "What makes you say that?" Mehl asked. "They weren't developing correctly," Yates said.

February 21, 2002 - "Son of Sam Law" - Citing free speech concerns, the California State Supreme Court unanimously struck down a law that barred felons from profiting from the sale of their crime stories. The 1983 statute, nicknamed the Son of Sam Law, required that convicted criminals give all money earned from book, movie or other deals to their victims or the state.

The nation's first such law was passed in New York after serial killer David Berkowitz was offered big money for his story. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down that law in 1991. The California ruling came in a case involving the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr., who was abducted by Barry Keenan and two others from Harrah's Casino at Lake Tahoe in 1963. The youngster was released unharmed after the Sinatra family paid a $240,000 ransom. After a magazine interview with Keenan was published in 1998, he and the writer sold the movie rights of "Snatching Sinatra" to Columbia Pictures. At the time, the company was ordered to give the $485,000 payment Frank Jr. Now Frank Jr. will have to give the money to Keenan.

February 21, 2002 - Nathaniel Bar-Jonah - Defense attorneys for cannibal-pedophile-killer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah tried to downplay testimony from three boys who said they were molested by the suspect. According to the attorneys the youngster were coerced by police. However, an FBI especialist said -- while aknowledging that detectives may have made mistakes -- the witnesses were not lying. One of the boys said that Bar-Jonah, who was his neighbor, put a rope around his neck and hanged him from a kitchen ceiling. The others testified about sleepovers at his house and how the man had touched them sexually.

February 21, 2002 - Adair Garcia - A man in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico Rivera killed five of his children by lighting a charcoal grill in their living room and filling the home with deadly carbon monoxide fumes. Prosecutors said murder charges will be sought against Adair Garcia, 30, because investigators are "absolutely certain" that he intended to asphyxiate his six children -- ages 2 to 10 -- and himself. The sixth child and himself, a 9-year-old girl, remain hospitalized. The children's distraught mother, Adriana Ibeth Arreola, had to be restrained by deputies when she arrived at the scene. She had been living at another location for about a week because of recent domestic discord. Found dead at the scene were Brenda, 10, Jonathan, 6, and Anthony, 2, the coroner's office said. Cecelia, 4, and Vanessa, 6, died later at a hospital. Paramedics were called to the neatly kept two-bedroom home in a middle-class neighborhood when the children's grandmother, who had come to baby-sit, saw smoke coming out of the house.

February 21, 2002 - Andrea Yates - State District Judge Belinda Hill admitted as evidence 29 photographs of the lifeless bodies of Andrea Yates' five children in the capital murder trial against her. Prosecutors plan to show the graphic pictures to the jury. The pictures include on of a 7-year-old floating face down in a bathtub as well as close-ups of bruises on the children's bodies. Defense attornies, who claim their client is taking powerful anti-psychotic drugs suffers from post-partum depression, tried to bar the use of the pictures. It's unclear whether Yates would be in the courtroom when the crime scene photos are displayed. Prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said the court might consider whether the defendant should be present if the issue is raised by defense attorneys.

February 20, 2002 - Andrea Yates - Andrea Yates' mother-in-law testified in court that six weeks before she drowned her five children in the bathtub, Yates filled the tub with water unexpectedly one day and said she "might need it."
Dora Yates said Andrea was her "very precious daughter-in-law," adding that she was catatonic and "not herself" for several months before she killed the children.

February 18, 2002 - Andras Pandy - Then trial for Andras Pandy, a Hungarian pastor living in Belgium, began in a Brussels court. Known as the "Family Killer", Pandy, 74, is accused of murdering his first two wives and four of his eight children. Police believe the number of victims may be as high as 13. His daughter Agnes, 44, who claims that her father sexually abused her from the age of 13, confessed to helping kill several family members and is also being tried for some of the murders.

February 14, 2002 - Nikolay Soltis - Three separate psychologists said Sacramento killer Nikolay Soltys wasn't a suicide risk. He had a surveillance camera and hidden microphone monitoring his jail cell around the clock, and three guards checked on him hourly. Yet the Ukrainian immigrant and family annihilator somehow managed to hang himself in his cell at the Sacramento County Jail. "I can't put 2,200 officers over there to hold the hand of every inmate," said Sheriff Lou Blanas, who oversees the jail, adding that preliminary investigations indicated officers followed procedures.

February 13, 2002 - Nikolay Soltis -
Ukrainian immigrant and family annihilator Nikolay Soltys was found hanged to death in his Sacramento jail cell. But Nikolay Soltys' attorney, Tommy Clinkenbeard, said he was not convinced the man took his own life, and the sheriff ordered a more extensive investigation. Soltys used a rope braided out of cloth ­ possibly from his bed sheet or a cast he was wearing on his leg ­ and a plastic bag, Blanas said. The rope was attached to a light fixture 5 feet off the ground. Blanas said the 6-foot Soltys apparently leaned against the rope until he lost consciousness. "This was not an instant death," said Clinkenbeard. "He was essentially choking to death."

February 11, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - Another 16 senior investigators have been added to the Missing Women's Task Force investigating the pig farm in Port Coquitlam. Over 40 investigators are now on this case.

February 10, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - Task force officers have erected fences round the Port Coquitlam pig farm owned by Robert William Pickton and his brother. They have also erected a tent along with their mobile command center. The 30-member task force has been joined by an undisclosed number of local officers to assist in the forensic search of the property. Families and friends of the missing women have converged around the ramshackled farm, hoping to finally have some answers to the dissapearence of their loved ones.

February 9, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - According to his lawyer, Robert William Pickton, one of the owners of the Port Coquitlam pig farm being investigated by the Vancouver missing women task force, is "shocked" and "flabbergasted" that he has been named a person of interest in the case.

February 8, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - Wayne Leng, in his grassroots search for Sarah deVries, set up a hotline for tips, which in 1998 recieved a call from a man calling himself "Bill" who said Sarah was dead. "This man who couldn't give me any more identity than Bill told me a prostitute he knew had been taken to a big pig farm at Port Coquitlam, where she had been badly assaulted," Leng said. "What's more, the prostitute had told Bill she had seen numerous items of women's clothing and pieces of women's ID all over the place." Leng recieved several other tips about a dangerous farmer called "Willy" which he passed on to the Vancouver police department and never heard about again.

February 7, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - BC Police announced a major break in the case of the 50 women missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. RCMP and task force members have sealed off a Port Coquitlam pig farm and set up a mobile command center near the property's dilapadated barn. Though he has not been called a suspect in the missing women cases, police have detained the farm's owner, Robert Pickton, 52, on an illegal weapons charge. "I can tell you a search is being conducted on that property and the search is being executed by the missing-women task force," said Constable Catherine Galliford, the spokeswoman for the joint Vancouver police-RCMP task force.

February 4, 2002 - Possible Vancouver Serial Killer - The Vancouver city police task force that is investigating the disappearances of 50 sex trade workers is now looking at two unsolved murders on the North Shore for clues. The missing women review team, a branch of the Vancouver police department, is probing details from two murders in 1990 and 1996. Mary Lidguerre, 31, a drug user and prostitute, was found dead in August 1996 near Mount Seymour Road. The body of another woman, Bonnie Whalen, 32, was discovered nearby six years earlier in April 1990. "There is some very valuable information we've collected from those investigations that may benefit the 50 missing women," said review team Constable Cate Galliford.

January 28, 2002 - Possible Kauai Serial Killer - The 42-year-old convicted rapist described by Kauai Police as the primary suspect in the murders of two women and a brutal attack on a third in 2000 was granted parole on Oahu. The man, who was convicted of rape, kidnapping, sex abuse and theft in August 23, 1993, will be released February 28. He was initially released on parole on January 5, 1999. But the man was re-arrested on a parole violation in the fall of 2000 and sent back to prison. His sentence ends on October 21, 2007.

The man was identified on an Oahu television newscast in September of 2000, when he was first brought in for questioning as a primary suspect in the killings. Local police and prosecutors never could agree on whether there was enough evidence to charge the man with murder. And the sole surviving victim of the attacks failed to identify the convicted rapist in a police lineup on Oahu in late 2000.

January 25, 2002 - Four Dead in Pensylvannia - Two adults and their two children were shot to death at their home in Maze, Pensylvannia, and a 16-year-old family member was being held in West Virginia on suspicion of murder.
The suspect, identified only as a family member, was apprehended during an unrelated traffic stop in West Virginia, about 400 miles from the murder site in Maze. The teen was pulled over for speeding on near Beckley, West Virginia.
"The trooper down there was suspicious of a couple of things and then a thing came over the teletype from Pennsylvania saying this person was a suspect," West Virginia Senior Trooper J.C. Powers said.

January 20, 2002 - Six Dead in Belgium - Police in Belgium are questioning a man after finding his five children killed as well as the lover of his estranged wife. Police believe the suspect, whose name has been withheld by authorities, killed four of his children, three boys ages 18, 10 and 6, and one girl, age 4, when they came to visit him. He then drove the four dead children, which were all strangled except for the 18-year-old who was shot, to their mother's house in a suburb of Brussels. There he shot dead his 16-year-old daughter and the boyfriend of his ex who is believed to be in his 30s.

January 13, 2002 - Four Dead in Nothern California - San Bruno police said they were looking for suspects and a motive in the killings of four young men found shot in an apartment. As of now they have arrested one man, 27-year-old Jaime DeAlba, who they considered a material witness. They are also looking for a woman with whom he shared the lease of the apartment. The killings were believed to have occurred the afternoon of the 11th. Police were called after a neighbor peeked through the apartment window and saw the bodies. Each man was shot in the head, and three of them had their hands tied behind their backs. Authorities said they found narcotics in the apartment. San Bruno, a small city about 10 miles south of San Francisco, hadn't reported a homicide since 1999.

January 9, 2002 - Four Dead in Pensylvannia - A Colorado sheriff's deputy was fired for giving conflicting statements about the shooting of a teen-ager during the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Relatives of the slain student, Daniel Rohrbough, said Lt. Jim Taylor deputy told them he saw a boy fall to the ground after apparently being shot. then realized it was Rohrbough after seeing newspaper photos of him. But in a December 31 statement, Taylor said he didn't see the shooting and told the family only what he had seen on TV and read in newspapers. Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said radio tapes and interviews prove Taylor was not in a position to see gunfire or Rohrbough during the rampage. Rohrbough's family claim the 15-year-old was accidentally shot by an officer as he fled the school. Sue Petrone, Rohrbough's mother, said Taylor, a longtime family friend, told her and her ex-husband, Brian Rohrbough, shortly after the tragedy and several times later that he saw the teen killed.

January 7, 2002 - Three Dead in Southern California - A man in Long Beach, California, shot and killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend at a wedding reception, then turned the gun on himself. Poly Kree, 41, and her boyfriend, Vichekka Chit, 44, were fatally shot at Lalune restaurant. The restaurant is the same place where Kree married the assailant, Le Tan Phuc, in 1999, said Kree's son, Sokhan Theam, 18. The 46-year-old gunman shot himself in the head, witnesses told police. Several hundred people were at the wedding reception when gunfire erupted.

January 1, 2002 - Happy New Year - Unlike other times, the ringing in of the new year has not brought any murderous acts of despair or insanity. This time no one decided to kill off his or her family, or walk into a party and blow it up. Congratulations, humanity, perhaps we're becoming more civilized after all. Now, if we could only stop smoking out people from their caves and we find Osama...

December 29, 2001 - Herbert Mullin - California's Herbert Mullin, who killed 13 people in Santa Cruz in 1973, was denied parole for the ninth time and will continue serving his life sentence. Mullin was convicted of stabbing a priest in his confessional, shooting four teens and killing a drug dealer, his wife and the wife and small children of another drug dealer. According to Mullin, voices in his head told him to commit murder to avoid a catastrophic earthquake that would slide California into the ocean.

December 19, 2001 - Mamoru Takuma - The man accused of stabbing eight children to death at an elementary school in western Japan pleaded guilty in the Osaka District Court. Mamoru Takuma, 38, admitted to the mass killing in June at Ikeda Elementary School.

December 26, 2001 - Aum Shinri Kyo - Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Tomomitsu Niimi, former "home affairs minister" of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, for the nerve gas attack in Tokyo's subways that killed 12 people. Niimi is being tried for a total of 26 murders, including the subway attack. Niimi gained notoriety at the start of his trial in 1996 by refusing to enter pleas and pledging eternal loyalty to Aum guru Shoko Asahara.

December 24, 2001 - Falun Gong - Four Chinese academics, a university staffer and a graduate student convicted of spreading material on the Internet about the banned Falun Gong spiritual group were sentenced to prison terms of up to 12 years.
Four of those jailed were faculty members of the Chinese capital's elite Tsinghua University, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

In the latest stage in its attack, the government has blamed Falun Gong for a series of recent slayings. State media claims that Falun Gong teachings have inspired some followers to kill their relatives.
Thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained in the crackdown. Supporters abroad say more than 300 have died from torture and mistreatment.
Last month, the Chinese government deported 35 Westerners, including six Americans, who protested in Beijing against the crackdown. Merry Christmas...

December 20, 2001 - Joseph Ferguson - Five friends who helped Sacramento authorities find rampage killer Joseph Ferguson may not receive a $50,000 reward promised by the state because the suspect killed himself before he could be convicted. Hilary McLean, a spokeswoman for Governor Gray Davis, said that state law requires that a reward be paid only if the suspect is arrested and convicted. Ferguson, 20, went on a shooting spree September 9 killing five of his co-workers. After the killings, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo announced rewards totaling $130,000 from four different sources. That's when the group of five friends spotted Ferguson's his car, followed it for about 15 minutes, and called police. After a stand-off with police, Ferguson shot himself. So far, only $10,000 from the U.S. Marshals Service has been paid to the five tipsters.

December 19, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway - Suspected serial killer Gary Ridgway pleaded not guilty to charges of committing four of the 49 Green River murders of the 1980s. Ridgway's lead attorney, Tony Savage, asked King County for at least $1 million to defend Ridgway with up to four other lawyers. Savage said he needs two years to prepare for trial -- assuming prosecutors do not add charges for some 45 similar murders in the early 1980s.

December 19, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway - The defense team for suspected Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, was awarded $290,000 in public funds by Superior Court Judge Brian Gain for independent DNA testing and hiring a forensic pathologist and a computer specialist to aid them. The judge also moved the case from suburban Kent to the King County Courthouse in Seattle. Authorities used a saliva sample from Ridgway to link him to the original Green River killings through fluids found on three victims from the early 1980s.

December 17, 2001 - Terry Nichols - Lawyers for Terry Nichols threatened to resign if they are not given another $1.8 million -- on top of the $1.8 million they have already received -- to properly defend their client. Nichols, 46, is already serving a life sentence after being convicted on federal charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Oklahoma prosecutors hope that the state murder charges will bring the suspected bombing coconspirator the death penalty.

December 12, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway - Witnesses have told police that Green River Killer suspect, Gary Leon Ridgway, spent time in and around Vancouver where 45 women have disappeared. Ridgway's neighbors said he and wife Judith constantly traveled in their motor-home to British Columbia and Oregon. Following Ridgeway's arrest, Canadian investigators visited authorities in Seattle to gather information about the suspect. Vancouver Detective Jim McKnight said police and RCMP have taken statements from Vancouver prostitutes who said they recognized Ridgway. "There's some indication that he was in B.C.," McKnight told Seattle's KING-TV. "I can't be too specific because I don't know for sure yet." The Vancouver disappearances, which victim-wise are very similar to the Seattle cases, began in 1984, at about the same time that the Green River killings ended.

December 11, 2001 - Columbine High - The families of five students killed in the Columbine High School massacre have fired the lawyer representing them in wrongful death lawsuits against school and sheriff's officials. The attorney, Jim Rouse, filed a motion in federal court saying a conflict about the future handling of the cases had caused a rift between him and his clients leading to their seeking new counsel. Several families of the victims have sued school and sheriff's officials, as well as gun show organizers and drug-making companies, after the attack, claiming authorities didn't do enough to prevent the rampage and botched the response.

December 10, 2001 - Andrea Yates - Russell Yates, husband of infanticidal mom Andrea Yates, said he doesn't believe he violated a gag order imposed by State District Judge Belinda Hill by speaking about his wife's medical condition on national television. In an interview for "60 Minutes," Yates blamed doctors and hospitals for not treating his wife properly. "I don't blame her a bit... If she received the medical treatment that she deserved, then the kids would be alive and well. And Andrea would be well on her way to recovery."

December 7, 2001 - Juan Martin Cantu - For more than a decade, Juan Martin Cantu lived with his wife in a ramshackle house near the Gulf Coast of Texas and worked odd jobs. On the side this model neighbor had a life as a hit man. The truth came out after Cantu was arrested on a charge of felony marijuana possession. During his interrogation, he admitted he had served time in Texas and Mexican prisons and that he also was responsible for 26 murders for which he had never been charged.

December 6, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway - Authorities have found bone fragments and other evidence in the homes of suspected Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgway. According to court documents, detectives took envelopes containing bone fragments, boxes of latex gloves and a copy of the book "The Search for the Green River Killer" from four homes where Green River Gary -- as he was known by co-workers -- lived. Authorities wouldn't provide details about the bones, including whether they were from humans. The documents also offers graphic details of Ridgway's sex life, as described by two ex-wives, girlfriends and prostitutes. They also recount alleged incidents of past violence toward women.

December 6, 2001 - Albert DeSalvo - Nearly four decades after the case file has been closed, new forensic evidence has brought into question the real identity of the Boston Strangler and the guilt of Albert DeSalvo, the factory worker who confessed to the murders. The team of forensic scientists who exhumed the body of Strangler victim Mary Sullivan revealed that tests on her clothing and remains found DNA from two individuals other than Sullivan, and neither of them was DeSalvo. "We have found evidence, and the evidence does not and cannot be associated with Albert DeSalvo," said James Starrs, a professor of forensic science and law at George Washington University. "I, as a juror, would acquit him with no questions asked."

December 1, 2001 - Gary Leon Ridgway - As of last summer, there was only one King County sheriff's Detective working the Green River Killer case file. Tom Jensen, the lone investigator, hoped to use tissue samples from the five initial bodies found in 1982 to finally identify the suspect. Nearly twenty years later, Seattle police officers arrested longtime suspect Gary Leon Ridgway, 52, for investigation of homicide in the deaths of four early victims in the Green River case. Ridgway, an employee of Kenworth Truck Co. in Renton for 32 years, was arrested as he was leaving work at a trucking company. He is married and has an adult son.

November 26, 2001 - King Gyanendra - Nepal's king declared a state of emergency after weekend attacks by rebels killed at least 76 soldiers and police, the palace said. King Gyanendra's decree suspended civil liberties and allowed soldiers to move against the rebels. Until now, police were used against the Maoist rebels, who are fighting to abolish the monarchy and to establish a socialist state. The Maoists rebels blame Gyanendra for the June 1 massacre at the royal palace that left the previous king and eight other royal family members dead. An official investigation found that Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his parents and other relatives.

November 19, 2001 - Paibul Boontod - A journalist in Thailand sprayed rival reporters with bullets over allegations of bribe-taking, killing three before ending his own life with a bullet in the forehead. Three other journalists and a lawyer were wounded in the shooting on a floating restaurant in Mukdahan, 400 miles northeast of Bangkok. The gunman, identified as Paibul Boontod, 58, was the president of the Mukdahan provincial journalists' association. One of the dead men was Suchart Chanchanawiwat, an editor of Chao Mukdahan, a local biweekly newspaper that had published several articles accusing an unidentified group of local journalists of bribe-taking and extortion. The report had caused a rift between two groups of journalists in the province leading to the meeting at the restaurant where the rampage occurred.

November 17, 2001 - Geoffrey Griffin - According to a court-appointed psychologist, Eddie Lee Mosley, who has been linked by DNA to the rapes and murders of eight females, including a teenager and a child, is incompetent to stand trial for those crimes because he is mentally retarded. Mosley, 54, was evaluated in the state psychiatric hospital in Chattahoochee, where he is confined. "It is the opinion of this examiner that Mr. Mosley is incompetent to proceed," psychologist Trudy Block-Garfield wrote in the competency evaluation report. She added Mosley does not have a rational understanding of the murder and rape charges against him, does not understand what the death penalty means, did not understand the role of his lawyer or the prosecutor and would not be able to give reasonable and relevant testimony.

November 15, 2001 - Geoffrey Griffin - Another suspect in Chicago was been charged with hunting and killing drug-addicted prostitutes. The new suspect, Geoffrey Griffin, 30, was charged with strangling or beating to death seven women during the summer of 2000. The charges came 17 months after he was initially jailed on suspicion of committing the slayings.

Griffin was charged two summers ago with first-degree murder in the killing of Angela Jones, a 32-year-old mother of seven, after he gave police a videotaped confession. Jones, whose body was discovered May 12, 2000, was the first of seven black, drug-addicted prostitutes who were found dead in abandoned buildings. At that time, Griffin denied involvement in the other women's deaths, but police said he was responsible for the slayings even though there was no solid evidence. DNA test results later connected Griffin to each of the seven killings, said Lt. Joseph Murphy.

November 14, 2001 - Geoffrey Griffin - A man shot by Charles Whitman during his 1966 clock tower rampage at the University of Texas in Austin died from complications from the gunshot wound to his good kidney, officials said. David H. Gunby, 58, die at a Fort Worth hospital after deciding to stop dialysis treatment. Gunby, then a 23-year-old engineering student, was one of 31 people shot by during the shooting spree in August 1966. During surgery, doctors found bullet fragments lodged in Gunby's only functioning kidney, forcing him to endure repeated kidney problems, a transplant and dialysis three times a week for 27 years.

November 6, 2001 - Ronald Taylor - Prosecutors handed jurors copies of rants against whites, Jews and homosexuals, recovered from the apartment of Ronald Taylor, a black man accused of killing three people in a racially-motivated rampage. "Jesus Christ made a very big, costly mistake by putting white trash people on the face of this earth," he wrote on what prosecutors called a "hit list". His attorney, John Elash, said the documents proved that Taylor is innocent by reason of insanity, arguing that Taylor suffers from paranoia and delusions.

October 29, 2001 - Possible St. Jason Hoffman - An 18-year-old student who admitted wounding five people at his high school earlier this year committed suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell. Jason Hoffman was found dead in his cell at San Diego's Central Jail shortly before 1 a.m., Deputy District Attorney Dan Lamborn said. Last month, Hoffman pleaded guilty to six felony counts for the March 22 shooting at Granite Hills High School in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon. He was to be sentenced on Nov. 8 and was to serve at least 24 years in prison. The attack came two weeks after a shooting by 15-year-old Charles "Andy" Williams at a nearby campus, Santana High School in Santee, killed two students and left 13 others wounded.

October 27, 2001 - Hu Wenhai, Hu Qinghai & Liu Haiwang - Fourteen people in a north Chinese village died when a gang of three went on a killing spree with hunting rifles, explosives and axes. The massacre took place on in Dayukou village on the outskirts of Jinzhong, in Shanxi province, about 30 km from the provincial capital of Taiyuan. According to the Xinhua news agency's web service, 46-year-old Hu Wenhai, his brother Hu Qinghai, 44, and Liu Haiwang, 40, rampaged through the homes of nine families killing 14 people and wounding. "It was probably out of revenge over some business disputes," a Jinzhong police officer said, adding that most of the victims were village officials, local mining bosses and their family members. According to witnesses, the massacre was carried out almost single-handedly by Hu Wenhai.

October 27, 2001 - Four Dead in Tours - A masked gunman opened fire in a street in the central French city of Tours, killing four people and wounding 10 in what Prime Minister Lionel Jospin called an "act of murderous madness." The morning shooting took place in the center of Tours, close to the city's railway station. A 44-year-old suspect, an unidentified train operator with no criminal record, was quickly apprehended by police after fleeing to an underground parking garage. Local officials said the suspect, who had no previous arrests, was slightly injured on the leg and chest when he scuffled with police. Afterward, the suspect told officials he had no recollection of the incident. Authorities determined the alleged gunman acted alone after a 40-member SWAT team, guns at the ready, came up empty-handed after searching the garage for a possible accomplice, said Jean-Francois Houssin, a regional government spokesman.

October 26, 2001 - Lorenzo Fayne - A confessed serial killer in Illinois will be investigated for possible links to unsolved local homicides committed when he lived in Milwaukee. Lorenzo Fayne, 30, who is already serving a life sentence for the beating death of a 6-year-old boy in East St. Louis, Illinois, last week pleaded guilty to killing four girls in the East St. Louis area between 1992 and 1994.

October 25, 2001 - Oscar Ray Bolin - For the seventh time in a row, Florida serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Since 1986 he has been found three times guilty of killing Terry Lynn Matthews. He has also has stood trial for the 1986 murders of two Hillsborough County women, Natalie Blanche Holley and Stephanie Collins. Twice he has been convicted for each of those murders. Each time the victims' families, the prosecutors, the judges, thought they had moved closer to justice, the Florida Supreme Court found mistakes in the trials and overturned the convictions. During Bolin's eight-day trial, signs of just how much time has passed since the killings were everywhere. Time and again, witnesses were forced to answer questions apologetically by saying, simply, "I don't remember. It's been so long." Bolin was 24 when Matthews was murdered; now he's 39.

October 24, 2001 - Javed Iqbal -
Convicted Pakistani child killer and his 14-year-old accomplice Sabir were found dead in their cell from apparent poisoning. Iqbal and Sabir, convicted of killing 100 children, had been sentenced to be strangled, chopped into 100 pieces and dissolved in acid. Their apparent suicides came just four days after the country's highest Islamic Court had agreed to hear their appeal against their death sentences.

October 21, 2001 - Columbine High - Families of five Columbine High School shooting victims are suing the maker of the anti-depressant drug Luvox that teen rampager Eric Harris was taking when he opened fire. Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., the maker of the drug, says the drug is used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court claims Solvay failed to warn Harris' doctor about side effects. "Such drugs caused Eric Harris to become manic and psychotic," the lawsuit states. The American Psychiatric Association defended Luvox in 1999, saying a decade of research found little relationship between the use of antidepressants and destructive behavior.

October 10, 2001 - Possible St. Louis Serial Killer - Two women in East St. Louis were found slain one day apart, bringing the number to eight women murdered in the same general area over the past two years. Police said the two most recent killings appear to be unrelated to each other or to the other six slayings.

October 3, 2001 - 6 Dead on a Greyhound Bus - A passenger aboard a Greyhound bus slit the driver's throat with a box cutter, causing a crash that killed at least six of the 40 people aboard and prompted Greyhound to temporarily halt service nationwide. The 34 other people on board, including the driver, were injured. Susan Dryden, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman, said it was too early to tell if the accident was terrorist-related, or just an individual with a grudge. The attacker, who was thrown through the windshield and died at the scene, allegedly spoke with an what seemed like a middle-eastern accent, but was later found to be carrying a Croatian passport.

The driver told authorities the attacker had been polite as her approached him several times before attacking him with the box cutter. The man then grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the bus into the oncoming lanes of the interstate before it crossed the road and tipped over onto its right side. After the crash the driver was able to crawl from the wreckage through a window of the bus and tried to flag down help from passing vehicles.

The Greyhound bus left Louisville, Kentucky, for Atlanta before crashing. The crash happened near Manchester, 50 miles southeast of Nashville. The bus originated in Chicago with a final destination of Orlando, Florida.